THis Psalme is Hortatory, stirring up to the praises of God.

And it is Laudatory, setting forth and celebrating the power and greatnesse of God, for which he is to be praised.

And lastly it is Consolatory, in regard of two bene­fits or blessings, which are promised in it for Gods people.

The first is Strength, which he will furnish them with­all for War against their enemies: in the former part of this verse.

The second is Peace, the choycest of all blessings: which is promised in these words, The Lord wil blesse his people with Peace.

Peace is the happy end of all accursed and unhappy contentions, and that that is the desire of all men, after they have been well schooled in the worth of it by the calamities of War.

But miserable it is to see, men will not know, nor ac­knowledge the benefit of it so much Fruendo, by in­joying it, as Carendo, by wanting it.

Gods choycest favors are least set by by them that pos­sesse them, without the least taint or staine of their con­trary evils, and the fulnesse of blessings gives men such saciety, that by injoying they grow unto a loathing of that that did they want, they would thinke themselves happy if they might enjoy.

The comeliest Lady in the world by time and age grows wrinkled; and then she that was the inamouret of all, becomes undesired of many, and some time the goodlyest beauty in the world is quite disdained, and an ugly and deformed creature substituted in those affe­ctionate embraces that are due to that beauty.

Which comes to passe through some untoward lust, or impotent and disordered passion, and to mens admi­ration, that a man should contemne a creature that might content the best of men, for the stolne waters and mud­dy puddles of a deformed hag and harlot.

Iust so it fares with many men and peace: That goodly Lady whose beauty hath been wooed and desi­red, sometime by men of all conditions, and bought sometime upon dishonorable termes, by great and noble Captaines and famous Commanders, weakned, wearied and wasted by War.

This Lady Peace of whom it was said anciently, Pa­cem te poscimus omnes, all of us are in love with Peace, is now by age and long continuance with us become so writhen and wrinkled in the eyes of some, that they be­gin to loath her company, and seeme to turne after, and doat upon that ugly hag of strife, contention, war, that as all other harlots in the end, will bring her lovers to a morsell of bread.

But all this comes from some distempered and noy­some passion, which we shall seek to cure and heale by discoursing of this beautifull daughter of God, for Peace is [...], the daughter of God, the [...], the Peace of God, who may say of his favours, as Juro did to Aeolus of her Nymphs,

I have fourteen Nymphs, the fairest whereof is Deiopeia which I will give in marriage to thee, that she may live all her dayes with thee, and make thee the father of a numerous off-spring: So God hath many favours, but the chiefest of them is Peace, the fairest often thousand; and such hath been his love and goodnesse to this Na­tion that he hath married us to Peace in a most stable and long continued contract, and to impropriate her un­to us in respect of other Nations, and if by our distem­pers we do not put her away, or by our sins procure a [Page 4]divorce, he will continue this his choycest Iewell still among us, as it is here promised, The Lord will blesse his people with Peace.

In the Text we have three things.

First, the Blessing, Peace.

Secondly, the Author of that blessing, the Lord.

Thirdly, those that be blessed of him with it, his people.

And answerably there be three observations.

First, Peace is a blessing upon Gods people.

Secondly, God is the author of it, and gives it to his people.

Thirdly, those that may expect it and have the pro­mise of it, are his people.

But I will contract and bind up all the Doctrinal part in this one bundle, as the Spouse in the Canticles said of her Beloved, He was like a bundle of Mirrhe, he should lodge between her breasts:

So I shall lodge that bundle in your breasts, desi­ring the aromatick savour of it may as a bundle of the choycest flowers, or a most delightfull pomander, be alwayes fragrant and redolent in the nostrils of your hearts, and that is this,

Peace is a blessing, a rare and pretious favour and mercy of God unto his people, Esay 54.13. Esay 66.12. and in in­finite places of the Scripture.

There is a threefold peace, Externa, Interna, Aeter­na; Temporall, Spirituall, Coelestiall Peace; there is outward peace, the Blessing: inward peace, the Grace: and everlasting peace of Glory.

And as in a stately Palace there is a lodge or court [Page 5]that leades into the inmost goodly roomes, so exter­nall Peace is the entrance or introduction to the inward lodgings of the sweet Peace of conscience, & of that e­ternal rest in which our peace in Heaven shall be happy, inasmuch as externall peace affords us many accommo­dations and helps to the gaining and obtaining both of the one and other.

Now this Externall Peace I shall discourse of only at this time. The outward Peace in this world, which fals under a double notion, according to a double state of men in the world.

First, there is a Civill Peace, in regard of the civill state of men, as they be men only, and are knit together in civill society in one Kingdom or Common-wealth, under one King, Governour or government, and bound in the bond of the same Laws, the sinews of their Peace and welfare.

Secondly, there is an Ecclesiasticall Peace, as men fall under the notion of Christian men, and are knit toge­ther in an Ecclesiasticall state, and in the bond of Reli­gion, and the same profession of Faith and manner of Worship in one body or Church, wherof Christ is the head, and the Magistrate his vicegerent, and the Scri­ptures the sinews of their peace, by precept for things necessary, by permission for things of decency not com­manded or determined in Scripture, but left to the dis­cretion of the Magistrate, whose Laws in these things are the Bonds of outward peace.

But of this Ecclesiasticall Peace, although I have had many thoughts, at this time I will make no words: the many things I have to speake concerning the peace [Page 6]of the common wealth so overcumbring me, that time will bee too niggardly and close-handed to mee for the other purpose, inopem me copia fecit.

I shall therefore at this time only discourse of civill peace of men, as men living together in one Common­wealth under one King and governour, bound up in the same Lawes, the bonds and sinews of peace.

To this peace are opposite all civill dissentions and contentions in the outward state of things, which usu­ally break forth into, and end in the troubles and confu­sions of warre, the greatest and extreamest opposite of peace.

The excellency of this civill peace the Psalmist sets forth excellently in two words, Psal. 133. 1. How good and pleasant a thing it is brethren to dwell together in Unity, that is, in Peace!

Quam bonum, saith hee, & quàm jucundum, how good and pleasant!

Some things are good, but they are not pleasant, as the afflictions of this life layd on us by God, by way of chastisement and correction, which though they prove profitable being sanctified to men by God, and bring forth in the end the peaceable fruit of righteousnes to them that be exercised therein; yet for the present they are not joyous but grievous, Heb. 12.11.

Some things are pleasant but they are not good, as the delights and contentments of our sensuall appetite, so far as it is carried after the loose and licencious swinge of our corrupted and depraved nature: for though Epicurus, and Aristippus may place their felicity in the pleasure of the sense, and although God hath gi­ven [Page 7]us many things contentive thereunto, yet unlesse the delights thereof bee regulated, and the content­ments thereof moderated, and the raynes of our licen­cious appetite restrained, though there be pleasure in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, yet there is no goodnesse therein; nor differs a reasonable man any thing therein from the brute beast that perisheth: which made the Poet say

Compedibus ventrem, vinclis constringe lienem: and the Apostle, Rom. 13.14. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.

Some things are neither good nor pleasant, as envy, ha­tred, malice, the maine vertues and ingredients at this time of some mens zeal that would be thought religi­ous.

Some things are both good and pleasant, as all kind of vertue, honesty, charity, mercy, and of this nature is peace: which made Henry the second of that name King of England, though hee were a valiant and cou­ragious Prince, and alwayes fortunate and successefull in his warres, yet to preferre peace before warre, because he found it more full of pleasure and of profit, than the Warres.

The excellency of civill peace I shall endeavour to set before you in two things.

First, in the many commodities it brings with it, for it never comes alone, but as that stately Queene of Carthage came forth to entertaine her Trojan Guest Aeneas, —Magnâ stipante catervâ, A numerous company of glistering Courtiers waiting on her: so peace is alwayes accompanied and attended by a [Page 8]goodly traine of blessings, and as Juno's Deiopeia, if thou enjoy her she will fill thee with many other blessings and contentments, as an off-spring begotten on her; pulchrâ faciet te prole parentem.

In peace husbandry flourisheth, for the comfortable provision of things needfull for humane life, ‘Pax Cererem nutrit, pacis alumna Ceres,’ Saith Ovid: and another Poet,

Peace nourisheth Ceres, whom the Heathens honoured as a Goddesse, because she first devised the sowing of corne; and Ceres is the daughter of Peace, in which the plowing Oxen were first taught to submit their neckes unto the crooked yoke; in which respect al­though the peace of the soveraignty and rule of Christ be inward and spirituall in the heart and conscience, yet it was prophesied by Micah 4.3.4. that when hee should judge among the people, i. e. reigne and rule by the Gospell, hee should rebuke strong Nations a farr off, and they shall breake their swords into Plow-shares, and their speares into pruning-hookes: Nation shall not rise up against Nation, neither shall they learne warre any more, but they shall sit every man under his vine, and every man under his fig-tree, and Esay 11.6. The Wolfe shall dwell with the Lamb, &c. 9. They shall not hurt or destroy in all mine holy mountaine, for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; For Christs Kingdome is a Kingdome of peace, and his Gospell and Scepter a Gospell and Scepter of peace.

In time of peace all Trades, and Arts, and honest Occu­pations are exercised without molestation, whereby men are increased into abundance, possessing the same with content and comfort, concordiâ res parvae crescunt, by peace small things become great, mens pence are increased into shillings, and shillings into pounds, and he that came naked into the world and a poore lad to London, by his trade in times of peace multiplies his few pounds into hundreds, and his hundreds into thou­sands.

In peace we injoy our owne propriety without vio­lent sharers with us, and can call that we have our own, eating our grapes under our owne vines, and our figs un­der our own fig-trees, giving good education to our chil­dren, sending them forth in the dance, and breeding them up to the similitude of the polished corners of a Pa­lace, when there is no going out nor comming in, Psal. 144.

In peace we injoy such honour as is conferred on us for wealth or merit, by God and by the King, whereby the Noble are held in due esteeme and distinguished from the base.

In peace as wholsome Lawes are inacted, so are they put in execution, and maintained in their strength and vigor, and civill Magistrates that beare the sword, beare it not in vaine, but as God hath stamped upon them his image, so are they obeyed, and had in honour according to his will.

In peace Learning flourisheth, the Vniversities and [Page 10]Schooles of the Prophets are erected, augmented, fre­quented, maintained, cherished and honoured to the advancing of good literature, (not the smallest honour of a Nation) in which respect the Ancients Hierogly­phically represented peace and learning by the Gowne, Pier. Hierog. as they did war by the souldiers cassock, and gave this sentence for the excellency of the one above the other, cedant arma togae, let armes give place to Arts, and warre to peace.

In peace the houses of God are open in season and out of season, that the Tribes may quietly and safely goe up thither to worship, even the Tribes of the Lord, and men may tread the wayes of Sion, and frequent her solemne feasts, to be fed with the fatnesse of Gods house, and the plenty of his dwelling place, and may attend the meanes of their salvation in the wayes that leade to grace and glory.

And in one word, all worldly desirable blessings are in this one blessing, peace, and doe acccompany and attend upon her; which made the Psalmist say, Psalm. 133.3. where men doe dwell together in unity, there the Lord hath appointed blessing and life for evermore.

Secondly, the excellency of peace will appeare by the vilenesse and deformity of warre, which is her con­trary, contraria juxta se posita, &c. contraries set one by the other are the more clearely discerned.

What mischiefe doth not accompany warre? for it never comes alone, but is attended upon by all the ima­ginable evills that bee in the world, which like those Eumenides, the hags and furies of Hell doe agitate and [...] men to their destruction, as the horse fly doth [Page 11]the cattell, when the Dog-starre reignes in Sum­mer.

Warre is a thing of mighty hazard to all kinds of persons, and things that bee in the world, the issues, and changes, and chances of it are most uncertaine, there­fore the anci [...]n [...] Romans (that knew as much of the slippery trickes of warre as ever any people under hea­ven) called the event of it, alea Martis, because when the battell is joyned, the issue of it is as uncertaine, as when the Die is throwne what chance shall turne upward.

Which made the King of Israel check the insolent boasting of proud Benhadad with this speech, let not him that putteth on his Armour boast as he that puts it off, 1 King. 20.11. The horse is prepared for the battell, but safety is of the Lord, saith the Wise man Solomon, Prov. 21.31.

In warre there is hazard of all particular persons, be they who they will be, the sword neither regarding the honourable nor the base, the learned nor unlearned, the wealthy nor the poore, the wise man nor the Ide­or, the innocent nor the wicked; there is no respect of persons, but it killeth one as well as another, as Da­vid said in his letter to Joab upon the slaughtor of Uriah, 2 Sam. 11.25.

Wee reade, 1 King 22.34. when Ahab warred at Ramoth Cilead, a certaine man drew a bow at adven­ture and smo [...]e the King of Israel betweene the joynts of his brigandine, being in his Chariot: here is every thing emphaticall to set forth the miserable chance of warre: first, a certaine man, an obscure fellow, God knowes [Page 12]who, not worth the naming, drew a bow at adventure, light where it will light, hee shootes at random and aymes at no man, but smites the King of Israel, the basest coward or villaine peradventure in the Army of the Syrians smites the noblest on the adverse party; a bow-man hits the King in his Chariot, and betweene the joynts of his brigandine, the onely place to wound him, had hee been neere and searched at leisure for a place to peirce him.

Here therefore in warre the Lords anointed, that is better than ten thousands, may fall as soone as the basest and most uselesse creature, to the great hazard of a state, and to the great sinne of those that shall expose his Royall Person to that danger: which made the loy­all people of David to say, when Ishabenob the Giant, in a battell wherein David was weake, had like to have slaine David, but that some of his Worthies rescued him from that danger, thou shalt no more goe forth with us to battell, lest thou quench the light of Israel, 2 Sam. 21.17. for thou art better than ten thousands of us, 2 Sam. 18.3. nay not onely the people of David, but the Prophet of the Lord. Lam. 4.20. speaking of a King, and none of the best neither, among other things he laments, makes this one maine part of his sorrow and mourning, the breath of our nostrills the Lords annointed, under whose shaddow we had rest, was taken in their pit, that is, by the hands of the Babylo­nians in their war against Jerusalem.

Marke here the phrases concerning the King, bet­ter than ten thousands of us, the light of Israel, in the mouthes of loyall people set forth in the Scripture for [Page 13]their commendation, and our imitation; the breath of our nostrills, under whose shadow wee had rest, so is the language of the Prophet inspired by the Spirit of God, though men have mouthes at present, that like black mouthed Cerberus, breathe and barke from Hell ano­ther language.

In war is hazard of whole Armies, and of Kingdomes that depend upon their Armies successe. Victory be­stowes not her selfalwayes to one side and party; The battell is not alwayes to the most righteous, it is not alwayes to the strongest, Eccle. 9.11. But as Noahs dove lay hovering over the waters, not knowing where to rest her foot, so when a battell is joyned, victory hovers sometimes long, inclining one while to the one, ano­ther to the other, uncertaine where to light, and set­tles sometimes on the one, sometimes on the others sword.

A gag that by his conquering sword had made ma­ny women childlesse, was taken prisoner at the last by Saul, and hewen in peices by the sword of Samuel, and his mother made childlesse among women, 1 Sam. 15.33. A doni-bezeck that had overcome threescore and ten Kings, and cut off their thumbs from their hands and feete, and made them eat bread like dogs under his table, was taken captive himselfe by the tribe of Judah, and retaliated by them, Judg. 1.7.

The five Kings that warred against the King of Sodome and his confederates, discomfited them and carried away the spoyle of Sodome and Lot Abrahams Ne­phew also, but Abraham arming three hundred and eighteene of his houshold servants, pursued these five [Page 14]Kings, and overthrew them in battell, and recovered Lot, with all the spoyle they had carried away as a booty, Gen. 14.11.15.

The Amalekites invaded Ziklag, spoyled the City, and carried away David's Wives and all the substance of his people; but David and his people pursuing them, defeated them, and recovered back all they had carried away from Ziklag, 1 Sam. 30.1.17.

In the warres betweene France and England upon our pretensions to that Crowne, wonderfull were the different chances of warre, the one sometimes gaining on the other glorious victories, and put at other times to shamefull flight and losse: that noble and vi­ctorious Prince Henry the fift so put that Kingdome to distresse by his victorious conquests, and forced the King to such extre [...]ity, that marrying his daughter, besides those provinces that he injoyed in present pos­session, it as agreed upon, that after the French Kings death, he should inherit the Crowne of France, by Oath of all the Nobles and cheife Cities of the Kingdome, and so it was proclaimed in England and in France

But Henry the sixt his sonne lost all his Father had obtained; which Henry the Father, by what spirit I know not did fore-prophesie; for when newes was brought him of the birth of his sonne Henry borne at Windsor, hee presently said, I Henry borne at Moun­mouth shall reigne a short time and gaine much; but Hen­ry horne at Windsor shall reigne long and lose all, which fell out very true by the differing chance of warre.

Henry the third in the Barons warres, at the battell [Page 15]of Lewis in Sussex was overthrowne by them: but in the battell of Eversham in Worcestershire bee defeated his Barons, because the Conqueror, and rid his neck from the yoke of the twelve Peers, that had been put upon him, and had a long time beene grievous to him.

Thus in the long and tedious warres betweene the two houses of Yorke and Lancaster, the differing chang­es of the war were many; sometimes one, sometimes the other faction prevailing in the field; and some­times one, sometimes the other wearing the Imperiall Crowne, till all on either side were as weary of the war, as many wanton men are now of peace.

All the great Monarchies of the world, as they rose, so they fell and were ruined by warre; as the Prophet, Iere. 50.23. instanceth in that great one, Babylon, saying, how is the hammer of the whole earth out asunder and bro­hen? how is Babylon become a desolation among the Nati­ons? In warre sometime where strength, and policy, and shill, and courage, and all things needfull for the war concurre, yet these prevaile not, but the weakest, the unskilfulest, the femest and most unfurnished of milita­ry accommodations goe away with the victory; and sometimes might overcomes right, and the most wicked winne the field, when God will chasten a people (for other sinnes) that have a righteous cause.

There is no greater evill and affliction in the world than War, for it is attended upon by all the evils of pu­nishment that God inflicts upon men for their iniquities. And therefore in Scripture, when God is so offended that he purposeth the utter mine and desolation of a fa­mily, [Page 16]City or Nation, this is the judgment that he sets on foot to that purpose.

By the Wars of the Philistims upon Saul, he put an end to Sauls life and Kingdom.

By the Wars of Jehu upon Ahab, he swept away the house of Ahab as dung from the face of the earth.

By the Wars of the Syrians upon Samaria, that City was brought to that calamity, that women did eat thier children by course, to satisfie their hungry soules, and fed and sustained their dying lives with the dung of Doves, a thing that nature loathes.

By the Wars of Nabuchadnezzar upon Jerusalem, that City was brought to that extremity, that the beautifull women (the sole of whose foot might not touch the earth) such was their nicety and tendernesse, did make their own Bowels the sepulcher, for their children of a span long, the fruits of their own bodies.

And when it had been reedified by Zerobabel and the rest of the reduct of the captivity, by the wars of the Romans, under the conduct of Titus and Vespasian, it was brought unto as great misery, and after taken and rased to the ground, and the people sold by the poll for slaves, and to this day remaine miserably dispersed up­on the face of the earth.

Troy, the most famous City of the World, the subject of the song of Homer, the oldest writer in the world, except Moses that wrote 500 years before him, by the wars of the Greeks was ruined and turned into a tilled field, ‘Jamseges est ubi Troja fait.—’ And now corne grows where Troy Town stood.

The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hiui­tes and Peresites, the Gigasites, great and mighty Nati­ons, who had walled Cyties, and Chariots of Iron, and the sons of Anack, mighty men among them, were spewed out of their land by the war of the Israelites up­on them, Josh. 12.

War brings the Screech Owle and the Dragon in­to the most beautifull and goodly Palaces, laying them as desolate wildernesses, full of briars and thornes, and makes them habitations for Satyres, the wild beasts of the Islands and other the most dolefull creatures, Esay 13.21.

Yea, when war enters into the Congregation of God, the very Temples of God are broken down with axes and hammers, Psa. 74.4. Even that very Temple that was the beauty & glory of the world, was burn'd by Nabuchad­nezzar with fire, 2 King. 25.9. which made the Pro­phet Esay thus complaine, Esay 64.11. Our holy and beautifull house, wherein our Fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire and all our pleasant things laid wast. And the Daughters ran the same fortune with their Mother, Psa. 74.7. They have cast fire into thy Sanctuary, and defiled the dwelling place of thy Name to the ground, they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land: Thus by War the holy Cities of Jury became a wildernesse, and Zion a desolation, Esay 64.10.

And no marveile, for when great Armies are got on foot, wherein are men for the greater part of them most impious and licentious in their violent lust, what can be imagined, but outrage and villany?

Here is nothing but robbery and spoyle, all is fish [Page 18]that comes to net, per fas per nefas, by hooke or crooke, all is one.

In war there is a continuall squeezing of the Spungt that sucked up abundance in the time of Peace, trea­sures are exhausted, plate [...] ▪ turned into earthen dishes, and people mightily inpoverished by the expensive op­pression of war.

In War trading decayes, lands lie untilled, and briars grow up instead of corne, Merchandize by exportation and Importation cease, Cities are unfrequented, like the wayes in Juels time, and are made desolate and waste, Et discordiâres magnae dilabuntur, by war and discord great things are brought to nothing.

In war Wives are made Widdows, Children Fatherlesse, Parents childlesse, Friends friendlesse, And in civill Wars, the most uncivill and barbarous of all other, the father often fights against the son, and the son against the father, and a mans enemies are those of his owne house and bloud, so that one brother becomes the but­cher of another, and the slaughters are most unkindly and unnaturall, all bonds of affinity, consanguinity and humanity being violently broken and cut asunder: as in those civill wars between the houses of Saul and Da­vid, betwixt Israel and Judah, betwixt York and Lan­caster, in which the brother hath sought against the brother, and the Kings own friends have been forced into the field against him, and have died in that fight, in which they have been but faint enemies to him, and to which they were altogether unwilling.

In these uncivill civill Wars, most wofull are the de­solations, none being more destructive and pernicious [Page 19]enemies than enraged friends, countreymen, kindred.

For when love is turned into hatred, that hatred is most deadly: Corruptio optimi pessima: as it is with any other thing, the better it was in its native, Goodnesse, the worse it is in its Corruption.

I exemplifie this in those bloudy Wars between the two houses of York and Lancaster, in which let that on­ly reigne of Edward the fourth be made our Map, to descry the desolations of civill War: in which were fought nine civill Battailes in England; insomuch that in his time most of the flower of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom, either died by the Sword va­liantly fighting in the field, or by the Axe of the Exe­cutioner, being taken prisoners for partaking.

The Civill wars between Marius and Sylla bad al­most unpeopled Rome, which made Quintus Catulus, a noble Roman, cry out one day in the Senate, with whom shall we live at last, Si in bello armatos, in Pace inermes occidimus, If in War we slay the armed, and in Peace the unarmed?

In that Civill War mentioned, Judg. 21.2. Between the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, when the fury was o­ver, the conquering Tribe wept sore for the destru­ction of Benjamin, whom they had slaine down to the small number of 600 men that fled and hid themselves in the rock of Rimmon.

In War, what losse is there of Limbs, of Eyes, of Armes, of Legs? What living sorrows of such as comming off maimed from the Battell do live in misery and want for ever after? So that for all their Markes of Honour, the dead are better than they.

And what dying groans, and moanes of men ready to gaspe out their soules, to whom all pity and compas­sion is prevented by Fifes, and Drums, and Trumpets, which are used in War, not only to encourage the Souldier to make havocke of man-kind, but, as in the valley of Hinnom, that the parents might not heare the screeking of their Infants sacrificed to Moloch, lest their eare should affect their heart: So are these loud Instruments used in War, that men may not heare the woefull complainings of their wounded friends, lest pity should enfeeble that Hellish fury, they call courage and valour, in killing and destroying.

In War all priviledges and immunities cease, for here is no Law, but power and lust, no Iustice, but spoyle and rapine.

Men had led, saith Seneca, a most quiet life, if they had taken away these two words, Meum & tuum, out of the nature of things; which made Licurgus set up a community in Lacedaemon, that his Citizens might have no contention for any private interest: But in Warre these pronounes, meum & tuum, mine and thine, are not known, but what the stronger can lay hold on, and car­ry away by might, that is his own; and it is here ac­cording to that proverbe, That that is thine, is mine, and that that is mine, is mine own.

Here is no Charter nor Freedom of the City, here is no distinction betweene the Magistrate and people, but Cade, and Straw, and Tyler will beard the King, and give all Iudgements out of their lawlesse lips, and the most noble here are made a scorne unto the basest villaine.

Here is no assurance of one penny to morrow, to [Page 21]him that this day is full and hath abundance. Jocus & l [...]us sunt in militiâ, domos diripere, fana spoliare, virgines rap [...]re, solida: urbes atque oppida incendere, Eras. in Adag.

In War the goodliest Cities are set on a Flaming fire, & laid in their dust and rubbish.

Here the chaste Wife and Virgin are ravished before the face of the miserable Husband and Parent, unable to relieve or rescue them from villany.

Here the little Infants are tossed on the pikes, or taken by the heeles, and their braines dashed out against the stones, or slaine in the armes, or on the knees, or in the bosome of their deere mother that bare them, and ripped sometimes out of their mothers belly.

In war there are a thousand indignities and barbarous cruelties, and nothing to be heard or seen, but weeping, & wayling, & wringing of hands, nothing but mourning, and lamentation and woe, heu miseri qui bella gerunt.

Indeed War is the last and soarest of all Gods Iudge­ments, sent out among men for their sins; the famine and pestilence not to be compared with it.

For men that be wolves and insatiable in their cru­elties, yea devils one to another, be the executioners of Gods sore vengeance brought on a people for their transgressions, when famine, pestilence, and other more gentle corrections have done no good upon them to reclaime them from their sins; against which, if God being angry, but a little, shall put this rod into the hands of men, they will helpe forward and increase the fury, Zecha. 1.15.

Nay more than this, in War the fury reacheth out only [Page 22]to living men, but to the reasonlesse creatures that are appointed for their comfort.

And more than that, to the very senselesse creatures, the trees of fruit, the Gardens and Orchards for delight, and fields of corne for the necessary maintenance of humane life, are cut down to the ground, or burned up and consumed, to the detriment of the posterity that are yet unborne: ‘Et nulla salus Bello.’

When Craesus was overcome and taken prisoner by Cyrus, he preferred Peace before War, by this Argu­ment; that in time of Peace the sons did bury their fathers dying before them, in the ordinary course of Nature; whereas in War the fathers bury their chil­dren slain violently by the sword.

But in War sometimes both fathers and children are exposed naked above ground to the shame of their nature, and contempt of their person, and to the vio­lence of wild beasts, wanting all decency of buriall, Psa. 79.2. The dead bodies of thy Saints have they given to be meat to the fowles of the heavens, and the flesh of thy servants to the beasts of the earth; their blond have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.

And more than that, they are sometime digged and dragged out of their graves, in which they were formerly layed at rest, and abused with contempt and villany, Amos 2.1. This was one great sin, for which God would not turne away the punishment of the King of Moab, because he burnt the bones of the King of Edom into lime, that is, digged them up out of the grave, when [Page 23]he had laine so long, that his flesh was consumed, and burned his bones to ashes.

The Duke of Bedford the Regent of France, that was victorious in Normandy in War, and governed it with renowned Iustice in Peace, dying in that Province, was buried under a stately Monument in Rean, but when by change and chance of War, all Normandy be­came French, and cast off the English yoke, the people would have pulled down his Monument, and have ta­ken up his carcase, and throwne it into the open field, but that the humanity of the French King would not permit that barbarous out-rage to his honourable enemy.

This mischievous indignity to humane nature was the reason why the Romans in their funerals burnt their dead to ashes, and put their ashes in an Vrne, or earthen Pitcher, that if their enemies should at any time sacke and take their City, the bodies of their deceased Citi­zens might not be digged out of their graves, and thus inhumanely abused.

If I could reckon up all the mischiefes that ever were of shall be among men in the world, they might all suf­ficiently be expressed in this one word, War, Si bellum dixeris, omnia dixeris. And therefore the contrary bles­sing, Pence, cannot but be acknowledged a rare and speciall favour, and a blessing of God to his people, who will blesse his people with Peace.

From all that hath been said by way of Explication, I draw these usefull directions by way of Applica­tion.

First, when we do see this blessing of Peace with­held, [Page 24]or shaken and threatned, we should be perswaded to renew our Covenants of Peace with God, and enter into a consideration of our sins, by which we have pro­voked him to anger, that we may be humbled for them and reforme them: For be we well assured, when wee behold the Lord gathering his forces together, and pre­paring to battaile against us, we have broken our con­ventions, and the Articles and Covenants of Peace that we have made with him; For because they have cast away the Law of the Lord, and despised the holy one of Israel, therefore is his anger kindled, and his hand stretched out against his people, Esay 5.25. and thus he threatneth them; If ye will walke contrary to me, I will walke contra­ry to you, & I will bring a sword that shall avenge the quar­rell of my Covenant, Lev. 26.24, 25. And therefore let us enter into consideration, how unworthy of, and un­answerable to the Covenant of the Gospell our Nati­on hath behaved it selfe, for whereas we should have adorned the Doctrine of God our Saviour, by holinesse and righteousnesse, as it doth teach us, Tit. 2.11. On the con­trary, we have lived in all impiety and unrighteousnesse, being full of envy, hatred, malice, fraud, deceit, hypocrisie, by lying, and killing, and stealing, and whoring, and swea­ring, we breake forth; for which God hath a controversie with the Land, Hos. 4.1. And seemes now to say, awake thou sword of the Lord, and take vengeance on the breaches of my Covenant of Peace. Now therefore upon the alarme given to us by God, we should be carefull and studious to renew our Covenants of Peace with him, as one advised, Job 23.21. Acquaint thy selfe with him, and be at peace, by Repentance and Faith in [Page 25]Iesus Christ the Mediator of Peace, entering anew in­to Termes and Articles of amity with God; and as the men of Tyre and Sydon, when Herod was fallen out with them, procured Blastus the Kings Chamberlaine to bring them into favour, Acts 12.20. So should we, by renewing our Faith in Christ that sits at Gods right hand, advance our pacification with God.

Secondly, now wee see the confusions of War a brewing, and the sto [...]me begin to arise, because we do not know but the date of the Peace of the Nation may be out, and the time come to us to drink the heavy and bitter Cup of trembling, that hath been put into the hand of all the Nations round about us, & have smal cause to thinke we shall go free, our care should be to provide against the mischiefe of War, which can reach to the great dammage of the soule that hath not made its Peace with God in Christ; Therefore wee should be perswaded very studiously to provide for the safety and security of our soules, laying them up by Faith in Christ in the hands of God, as in the hand of a faith­full Creator, and a reconciled God in him, that if we fall in the common calamity and destructions of the sword, and be deprived of that outward Peace which is in the World, yet keeping Faith and a good Con­science, the sword shall but let our soules out of the body, as out of a prison, to injoy eternall Peace and rest in Heaven, the consummation of the blessed quiet begun in Peace of Conscience in this Life; & we shall by death be delivered from all the evils that shall come upon the World, Esay 57.2. For the righteous is but taken from e­vils here below, and Peace doth come to them in death, and [Page 26]the grave is but a bed of rest to them; and that fulfilled that our Saviour spoke, Ioh. 16.33. In the world ye shall have trouble, but in me ye shall have Peace, the way wher­unto is Faith and a good Conscience, Vprightnesse and Integrity of heart, for the end of the upright and perfect man is Peace, Ps. 37.37. therefore saith the Psalmist, Keep innocency, and do the thing that is right, for that will give a man peace at the last; and though the Heavens fall, the ruines thereof shall not make him affraid, his heart being supported by a better hope and expectation than the best things in the World can afford unto him, ha­ving laid his soule up in the safest hand.

Thirdly, seeing War is so full of mischiefe, and such a destroyer of all the blessings of Peace, make it your dayly request to God, that he would be pleased to de­liver us from it, to keep it from entring in among us, and to scatter that cloud that hangs over our heads and threatens us. I heard a Preacher once in the pulpit exhort men to pray against the compounding our distractions that be broken forth upon us, as a thing that would undo us, And he said, Though War were a sad way, yet it was the safest way. Dulce bellum inexpertis. Surely David a valiant warrior, and learned in the miseries of it, by long tryall and experience, when God (purposing to cha­sten his pride in the multitude of his people by cutting short the numbers of them) put him by Gad to the choyce of pestilence, famine or war; David that knew full well the calamities that accompany this judgement, utterly declined it, leaving himselfe to God to send which of the other two it was his pleasure, 2 Sam. 24.14. Let me fall into the bands of God, saith he, for his [Page 27]mercy is great, and not into the hands of man (for wee may thus supply it) with man in warre there is no mercy: from whose example let us learne to pray which way soever he pleaseth to chasten us for our sinnes, yet to preserve us from this dreadfull mischiefe and calamity of warre, if he have any pleasure in us.

Fourthly, we should bee excited to great thankful­nesse for our blessed peace that hath been so long con­tinued among us, and for all those blessings that have accompanied it unto our comfort, God having made us all our dayes to dwell in the multitude of peace, un­der nourcing Fathers and Mothers, Princes that have de­lighted in, and under God procured and maintained us in peace, whereby we have beene increased into all affluence and abundance of people, riches, and all kind of things needfull and convenient for this naturall life, in learning and knowledge, and all helps to further the health and happinesse of our soules, if now we doe not ruine (propriâ mole) by our owne abundance; And as fat cattell that came leane and scragged into a rich pasture, being growne wanton with their fulnesse of feede, turne the heeles on the pasture that hath fed them, leaping over the hedge, through desire of change, and to run at random in the vast Common, where their pasture is too short to fill their bellies, and the briars and thornes do plentifully tear and rend their smooth and sleeke backs, and send them home with desire to the place from which they brake in wanton­nesse, where they stand as it were bemoaning their fol­ly, but unable to get into the place which they wan­tonly forsooke, till helped in by their Master.

Fiftly, it should beget in every one of us an averse disposition to warre, and an inward dislike and loathing of it, and should frame in us delights and desires of this great blessing of peace, with all answearable endea­vours as much as in us lies to advance and preserve it among us: to be in our selves of a peaceable disposition, to love and live in peace, it is a fruite of true Religi­on and an argument thereof, James 3.17. The wise­dome that is from above is peaceable, full of mercy, gentle and easie to be entreated, it is not full of malice, and ha­tred and fury, like them that breath nothing but swords and pistolls, and speake nothing but halters and axes, and perswade nothing but warre and fighting up to the knees in bloud, uttering nothing but threatnings, and ruine, and confusion to all that differ from them in the least syllable of opinion; surely if any man seeme to bee religious and refraineth not his tongue his Religion, that is, his profession of religion is in vain, Jam: 1.26. and ther­fore let your speeches breath peace out of a peaceable heart, desire, labour for and study peace, and as a thing helpfull thereunto, follow your owne plough, and med­dle not in things that belong not to your calling: stu­die to be quiet, saith the Apostle, and as a thing helpfull thereunto he addes, meddle with your owne businesse. 1. Thes. 4.11.

There bee men that have an Oare in every mans boate, matters of State, and the Ministery, and Go­vernment, and Reformation is his businesse that never yet reformed his heart or life; they will not allow a Bishop in his owne Diocesse and yet will be [...] Bishops in every mans Diocesse, from whence [Page 29]growes strife, and contentions, and great and hatefull thoughts of heart that prepare men unto civill warre, and withall if that evill come upon us, to encrease the mischiefes of the judgement, and to make it the more bitter and destructive.

Sixtly and lastly, pray for the continuance of our peace so long continued to the happinesse of our Nation, but now grievously shaken and threatned, pray that it may be deere and precious in Gods eyes, and that which he denounced against his people never befall us, Jer. 16.5. I have taken away my peace from this people. It hath been a great blessing hitherto, that in our time there hath been no going out, nor comming in, nor complaining in our streets, through forreign or domesticall warre, happy are the people that be in such a case, Psal. 144.15.

It was the happinesse of Solomons time, 1 Chro. 22.9. That he was a man of peace, and God did give him rest from all his enemies round about, and therefore hee called his name Solomon, that signifies peaceable, for I will give peace and rest in his dayes, saith God to Da­vid. It was a great blessing upon Jehoshaphat and his Kingdome, that the feare of God fell upon all the King­domes that were round about Iudah, so that they made no warre against Iehosh [...]phat. 2. Chro. 17.10. And our duty is to be thankful that it hath beene so with us of a long time, and to pray that this our happy peace may be continued, and seeing wee have no comming in by invasion, that there may be no crying in our streets by the miseries of civill warre in the bowells of our Nati­on through the distempers of any ill affected persons that doe desire or delight in such a warre.

For did wee know so much of civill warre as a few moneths have discovered to them in Ireland, wee would thinke our selves an happy people, and a little of their vineger would cure the itch of their fingers that would faine be fighting.

There be some unquiet spirits alwayes among men, of whom it may be spoken that Agamemnon said of Achilles, ‘ [...]’ Strifes, and warres, and fightings are alwayes pleasant to thee.

Angry natures, iracundia lites concitat, concordiam dissipat, anger stirres up strife, and scatters peace.

There are a people it seemes weary of peace, and desirous of warre in the bowells of the Nation, not considering that such a warre is with their owne bre­thren and Countrie men in the flesh, and will be most fatall to the whole Nation, and begin when it will begin, it will be bitternesse in the latter end, as Abner said to Ioab: and come it when it will come, it will bring re­pentance enough with it when it is too late, both to the vanquished, and to the victor.

Benhadad despising termes of peace, and wilfully and proudly making warre upon the King of Israel, was taught repentance by an utter discomfiture of his nu­merous forces wherein hee trusted and whereof so much hee boasted, 1 Kings 20.20. and was forced when he was halfe drunken to flye for his life, and af­ter basely to send his Courtiers with ropes about their necks, to say to the King of Israel whom hee so much despised and provoked to battell, Thy brother Benha­dad [Page 31] saith, I pray thee let mee live; Indeed the proudest and most quarrelling Spirits in prosperity are usually the basest, and most ignoble in adversity.

The Trojans after the many fearfull miseries and dreadfull calamities of ten yeares warres of the Greci­ans upon them, provoked by the rape of Helena whom Paris had stolne out of Greece from Menelaus her husband, began to thinke of sending Helena home, which had they done at first as they were bound in ju­stice, and not perversly gone about to maintaine that wicked act with warre, they had escaped the misery they suffered, and the ruine of their City: whose late repentance came into a proverb, Serò sapiunt Phryges, the Trojans are wise when it is too late, which will be fit to all that stubbornly betake themselves to warre.

But of all warres the civill warre is most unkindly and disconsolate, though too too many wretched spirits wish it were a foot: and whereas all good men would sacrifice themselves for the peace and safety of their Country, these would faine bee fishing in troubled wa­ters, and therefore trouble the waters that they might bee fishing.

Otho the Emperour being but three and thirty years of age, seeing he must either lay downe his Empire, or maintaine it with the slaughter of his Citizens, and be­ing exhorted by his souldiers not to despaire of the successe of that warre, made them this answer, sibi su­am vitam tanti non esse, ut hâc de causâ bellum civile nas­ceretur, my life is not so deare to me, that for it a civill warre should be raised in my Countrey.

But many are of such pestilent and destructive spi­rits, [Page 32]so malignant and ill affected to the publique, and so full of love unto their own particular, that they wish a civill warre, some for spoyle and booty, and some to injoy their licencious liberty, and some to advance onely their peevish humour, and to maintaine or set up things that cannot in all eternity recompence the slaughter of one battell.

Macedonius the Heremite hearing Theedosius the Em­perour had determinined to make warre upon the An­tiochians, Theod. l. 5.20. and to destroy them by the sword, because they in a discontented tumult occasioned by the impo­sition of an extraordinary tribute, had broken downe a brazen image of Placilla the Queene, reproved the Emperour by a message, and charged him to desist from his intended enterprise, and to consider that hee was but a man, and depended upon the will of God, and not to destroy the Image of God by warre for a bra­zen Image, seeing many other brazen Images might be made, at ne pilum quidem Jmperator interfecto homi­ne restituere posset, but a haire of a man slaine could not be repaired by the Emperour, and the Emperour obeyed the Eremite and forgave the Antiochians.

The cause of warre had neede be very great and ur­gent, and the benefits of it apparent, for the destructi­ons of it are of things inestimable: and therefore peace hath alwayes beene and is a blessed thing, and an estee­med Iewell, and warre most wretched and abhorred of every man, unlesse of such as be crazed in their breins or fortunes, that haveeaten hemlock and are fitter for the darke and close lodgings of Bedlem, than to see the light and open aire, and live in humane society [Page 33]to which they are infestive that desire or delight in warre.

When a Pyrate was brought before Alexander, and accused for robbing on the Sea, Alexander asked him why hee infested men upon the Sea? to whom the Pyrate boldly gave this answer, Why dost thou infest them on the Land? but because I doe that I doe par­vulo navigio in a small bottome, therefore I am called a theife, and because thou doest that thou doest magno exercitu with a great Army, therefore thou art cal­led an Emperour. Certainly they were both of them mischeifes to mankind by the bad effects of violence, and of the sword, which are the losse of goods, Estates, Liberties, Landes, and all other comforta­ble things that waite on peace.

For in peace there is freedome from all those sad and black calamities, which the dismall clowd of warre rains down among the sons of men to their destruction. They are therefore like Alexander and his Pyrate, the very pests among men that doe delight in warre, and doe desire to breake off and chase away the great bles­sing of peace.

For in peace men enjoy themselves and the fruit of their labours, trade in the City, husbandry in the Countrey, pleasure in their recreations, traffique with strangers, the Gospell preached, Gods Ordinances duly administred, his Sabboths comfortably observed, communion with their friends and kindred, education of their children, and plenty of all blessings that bee deere unto the living, and decent and comely buriall of the dead, all which they are deprived of by warre, [Page 34]as they be blessed with them by peace.

Peace, why it is the desire of Angels for us, Luk. 2.10. Glory be to God on high and on earth peace, was the song of the heavenly quire that celebrated the birth of Christ the King of peace.

Peace, why it is a blessing promised to the Church in all the ages of the world upon their obedience to God, Levit. 26.6. If ye walke in my Statutes and keepe my Com­mandements, I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lye down, and none shall make you afraid, neither shall the sword goe thorow your land.

Peace, why it is the request of the Prophet, and that he stirres us up to pray for, Psal 122.6. Pray for the peace of Ierusalem, they shall prosper that love thee, peace bee within thy walls and plenty within thy Palaces, for my bre­thren and companions sake I will now say, peace bee within thee, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will wish thee good. First, here is prosperity to them that love the peace of Jerusalem; Secondly, here is peace first, and then plenty after; Thirdly, here is peace prayed for for humanities sake: and fourthly, for Religion and the Churches sake.

And the taking away of peace is reckoned in Scri­pture a grievous judgement, and so threatned, Ier. 16.5. Thus saith the Lord (to the Prophet) enter not into the house of mourning, neither goe to lament or bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even loving kindnesse and mercy: for if peace bee gone, farewell all other blessings of the Lord, and therefore threatning the captivity, he thus expresseth it, [...]er. 30.5. wee have heard a voyce of trembling, of feare [Page 35]and not of peace, for the voyce of peace is sweet, as the voyce of warre is dreadfull.

And this judgement God seemes now to threaten us withall, our peace seemes to be shaken, crazed and al­most broken in pieces, and warre to bee entered into our gates, we heare the beating of the Drumme, the clangor of the Trumpet, the report of the Musquet; and the horse prepared for the battell trots in our streets, and his neighings are entred into our eares, and the destructions will be of the same Country-men, and of many of the same profession for the substance of Re­ligion, and of the subjects of the same King.

Oh, ye therefore that be the friends of peace, the servants of the God of peace, the saved of the Prince of peace, and joyned together in the same covenant of peace, who have one God the Father of all, one Lord the Redeemer of all, one faith, one baptisme and one hope of Heaven, pray for peace: pray that some Mediator may stand up in the gap to divert this threat­ned storme of destruction: pray that that God, who when there was such a distance made betwixt God and man by sinne, that no creature in heaven or earth could re­concile them, conceiving in the bowells of his mercy thoughts of peace toward man, did send the Sonne of his love and delight in the flesh, to make peace, to pro­cure peace, to preach peace and purchace peace for us with our God, would stirre up in the hearts of Prince and Parliament the studious desire and endeavour of pacification, that these water-breaches that be broken in upon us, may not be given way unto, lest they prove an inundation and deluge of destruction.

It would be a work of glory for every man in place fit to that purpose to labour this way, and blessed should he be, blessed are the Peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God, Mat. 5.9.

Titus Flaminius when he had composed the divisi­ons and quieted the seditions of Greece, Plut. Flam. and setled the divided and distracted estate of the Countrey, tri­umphed for it with as great joy as if he had conquered the Macedonians and all Greece.

So glorious would it bee to be a worker in this worke of pacification for any man that hath a calling giving him a capacity thereunto, that he should bee registred in the Chronicles of Fame to his immortall glory, wherein the willfull raisers up of warre shall beare eternally the blacke marke of Infamy.

And for us all of an inferiour Orbe & Sphaere, lets be excited to pray labour, and study in our way for peace, not blowing the Trumpet nor stirring up the coales and fire of warre, by factious oppositions, by siding names & Titles that tend onely to sedition, and to soment and nourish hatred and malice, there by to prepare us to the greater cruelty one against another, if that judgement should be begun amongst us; let us avoyde lying and slandering, especially blaspheming and standering the footsteps of the Lords anointed; let not the voyce of warre be named by you, unlesse in detestation, si pacem diligis belli mentionem ne feceris.

He was no foole but a wise Statesman that said, S [...]t [...]. de Bene. ini­quissimam pacem justissimo bello antefero. I preferre the most unjust peace before the justest warre, & omnis pax bello civils praestantior, Cicero. any peace is better than a civill [Page 37]warre. Most true it is that peace is better with many disadvantages, than War with all the conditions that be desirable to it.

Certainely therefore they be men of mad and dis­joynted braines, and desperate spirits, that are all for Warre, especially for a Civill Warie, in the bowels of their owne Countrey and Nation, Cicer. in Phil. Of such a man saith Cicero, Nec privatos Focos, nec publicas Leges, nec Libertatis Jura chara habere potest, &c. Hee nei­ther esteemes mens private interest, nor the publique Laws, nor the rights of Liberty deere unto him, whom discord, whom the slaughter of his Citi­zens, whom Civill Warre delighteth; and I think him fit to bee cast out of the number of men, and to bee exterminated the confines of humane Nature; and therefore whether it be Sylla or Marius, or who­soever else that wisheth for a Civill War, I judge him to be borne a detestable Citizen to the Common­wealth.

Neither is any thing more horrible than such a Citizen, than such a man, if at least he be to be esteemed a Citizen, or a man that desireth a Civill Warre.

The Turkes in detestation of the bloudy contentious humor of Selimus their Emperor, who was never quiet, never well, unlesse he were fighting, though it were with his own father, made this a piece of his Epitaph, ‘Licet ossa jacent, animus tamen bella quaerit;’ Though his bones be at rest, his ghost is hunting after war.

Oh, let us that be Christians then, the sons of peace, and called unto peace, in and by the Gospell of Peace, abhorre those bloudy slaughters of mankind that do accompany War.

Thinke often on the miseries that do waite on War, and go along inseparably with it.

Set woefull Germany before your eyes, so wasted and consumed by war, that in the Palatinate, the good­lyest and most fruitfull Garden of that Countrey, men have beene found dead with grasse in their mouths, which they have gathered and gnawed up like beasts, to keep alive their starven soules, ready to dye of hunger.

Set lamenting Ireland before your eyes, with all those villanies & outrages committed on men, women, children, rich, poore, priest and people, without respect of age, or sex, or calling.

Do we desire to be made desolate as they be?

Would we see our Towns and Cities on a flaming fire?

Would it be pleasing to us to behold our wives, the pleasure of our eyes ravished before our faces?

Would it be a delight unto us to see our little Infants, [...]hat be so deare and tender to us, that the wind may [...]ot be suffered to blow on them, tossed on the Pikes in sport, by the barbarous and remorselesse Souldier, or [...]aken by the heeles, and their braines dashed out against [...]he pavement?

Would we behold all we have laboured for all our life [...]ong, carried away in a moment by a stranger; and all our pleasant places that be deare unto us, made a deso­late heap of rubbish; even our Churches, which our fa­thers [Page 39]with great and expensive costs have builded, and our selves have at our own charges repaired and beau­tified, that we may with the more lightsome comlines, and decent delight assemble together in them to Gods service & the welfare of our souls, & into which in some places already the Souldier is entred to bee trained and marshalled: Would we see them laid waste, or made shambles, or market-places, or stables, or Pigion houses, the things that some desire and speake concerning them already?

Or do we desire to enjoy Gods blessings, and our selves & wives and children in honesty and in honour, our trades and riches in the City with safety, our plea­sure and possessions in the Countrey with comfort and contentment?

Oh then let us desire, and pray, and labour for the continuance of Peace, [...], Oh foole, foole, all these desirable things are in this one thing, Peace.

And if notwithstanding all that hath been said, or may bee thought concerning the blessing of Peace, and the mischiefe of War, we will yet desire to be fighting; Remember that imprecation of the Prophet, Psal. 68.30. Thou shalt scatter the people that delight in War. Consider neither side can be assured of victory: nor can any man imagine the sad issues of a discomfiture to the discomfited.

Let therefore (I beseech you) the eare that hath heard these things, affect the heart against that fearefull judg­ment of War, and beget in us all a desire and love of Peace, in which we may enjoy all desirable blessings, [Page 40]and the blessed Gospell of Peace, to build us up in that Peace of God that passeth all understanding, and bring us after the troubles of this life to that rest and Peace that shall bee glorious and happy in Heaven for ever.